Just Like Me

One of our favorite parts of The WayGood World is being invited to play Outreach Programs for students.  From the University of Texas in Tyler, where we played for 400 students, to a small linoleum-lined cafeteria workshop with 20 grade-schoolers in East Chain, Minnesota, we are always faced with a fresh challenge and quite often astonished to hear the best quips.

Our Outreach Program in Dubuque, Iowa has taken on marathon proportions at times.  One year we played for 9000 students in just 10 days.  The most recent jaunt to Dubuque was for two middle schools where we presented an after-school workshop on songwriting that we call "Why Did We Write That?".

We were working on a song as we drove the three hours to the school.  Usually Marty drives while Brian plays the mandolin and holds a pad of paper at the same time.  When we get a good start, Brian turns his cell phone's recorder on and we can lay down a rough idea.    This rough idea was what we shared with the students at Madison School.  We pulled out our instruments and played it for the students to see what they thought.  They liked the song. We had thus established our credentials as "cool" songwriters.

Brian asked why these ten kids chose this particular after-school activity.  One young girl with red hair said that she wanted to write a song for her dad as a birthday gift.  Another girl, who sported an Abercrombie shirt, would write songs but had a hard time remembering what she had written.  And a shy girl,  who never stopped doodling on her song pad, quietly told us she would randomly open a dictionary to find an interesting word and then begin writing a song.  Finally, the only boy, who was pretty reticent being in a room full of girls, revealed he was a multi-instrumentalist who loved writing melodies but just couldn't write lyrics.  We had our team.

So we voted on what type of song to write.  The girl's birthday gift was chosen as the best project. In five minutes we had important facts about dad listed on the chalkboard.  He was a first child of four and this daughter was also the first of four.  He was the only boy in the family and his daughter had one brother as well.  They shared the same date but different months, both being born in the fall.   When they would have a daddy-daughter outing, they loved bowling, sledding, and going to movies together.   Marty would write these ideas on the board with a marker.  Later he found out he used a non-erasable marker and we had to spend 10 minutes cleaning the board.

The red-haired girl wanted the song to resemble a slow version of "Happy Birthday," so the young multi-instrumentalist was called on to strum a melodic variation on the guitar.   It came out like a cross between "Frere Jacques" and Mendelssohn's "Wedding March." The students all got excited as the song started taking shape.  We all approved the melody and began to assemble the information on the board to develop the lyrics.  A working title was chosen: Just Like Me.

Abercrombie shirt enthusiastically waved her hand.  "How about we have her ask her dad for new clothes?"

"But it's his birthday," said the shy girl, glancing up from her doodling.

"I DO ask Dad for new clothes on his birthday," said the red-haired girl matter of factly.

"OK, OK," said Brian, "reality is good.  Let's run with that as part of the song."

At the end of the hour we completed "Just Like Me" with two verses, a chorus and even a bridge!  With our multi-instrumentalist on guitar, Brian on mandolin, and Marty on bass, we had a full band.  The entire group loudly joined in the singing, each kid feeling the pride of ownership that comes from crafting a work of art.

We recorded the song on the cell phones and the students took the lyrics home to share with their families.

Right before we were to leave, Abercrombie enthusiastically waved her hand.

"Can we sing 'Just Like Me' in a British or Australian accent?" she asked.

This April, we will have our second Annual Switchback Songwriter's weekend at Four Mounds Conference Center in Dubuque.  We are bringing in a guest songwriter, Kevin Gordon, to share his experiences with songwriting.  We also will have our resident songwriter, Scott Momenthy, on hand to help coach individuals.  More information is on our website.

Last year, we had writers and guests (yes, you can be a spectator) come from as far as western Kansas to participate in this weekend of relaxation and creativity.  There were beginners and seasoned performers mixing in the endeavor.

Like that red-haired girl from Madison School, who gave her dad a wonderful birthday gift, everyone has a chance to leave this weekend with a personal treasure of original music. We hope all of them will be as proud of them as the kids who wrote "Just Like Me."  And maybe they'll sing it in an Australian accent.

~ Brian and Marty

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